Selling frozen edible products, such as ice creams, sorbets, water ices, frozen milkshakes, granitas and the like, in quick service restaurants, institutional catering facilities, petrol stations and other outlets has always presented problems. Firstly, frozen products must be stored in freezer cabinets which, owing to their size, frequently cannot be located at the point of sale where the customer makes his decision with regards to buying or not buying a product. Secondly, products must be visible and accessible to serving staff and/or customers. If frozen products are not visible, customers are likely to choose a more readily accessible alternative, for example a chilled dessert such as yoghurt which is normally displayed in an open-fronted chill cabinet or a chocolate bar from an ambient display stand.
Counter-top freezers are available that allow frozen products to be presented to customers but these require connection to a power source and maintenance. They are also quite sizeable, due to the need to provide active refrigeration, whereas in catering environments space is usually a very scarce resource. On the other hand, insulated boxes combined with passive refrigeration (e.g. cooling blocks containing eutectics) for storing and preserving frozen products are known, for example from U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,220. WO 03/083386 discloses an insulated container having removable displaying and cooling means and containing frozen edible products. In operation, the insulated container, equipped with its displaying means and cooling means and filled with frozen edible products to be sold, is put on display at a point of sale, so that customers can chose and take products from said insulated container. However these insulated boxes and containers do not keep frozen products at sufficiently low temperatures for sufficiently long times. Thus there is a need for a new apparatus for displaying frozen products which does not require large amounts of space and which maintains the products at low temperatures for long times.